A generally planar sheet of paperboard or polymeric material for stabilizing a rectangular array of cans of a type having an end with a chime and for covering substantial portions of those ends of the arrayed cans is disclosed in Klygis et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,726, hereinafter "Klygis et al. patent", the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
As disclosed in the Klygis et al. patent, the sheet has multiple pairs of substantially parallel slits, which define can-stabilizing strips and longitudinal edge portions. The sheet is described therein as clippable onto the cans in the rectangular array in such manner that portions of the chimes of the respective cans extend into the slits of the respective pairs and that each strip fits, without folding such strip, under portions of the chimes of two adjacent cans.
It is disclosed in the Klygis et al. patent that the sheet may be clipped onto the cans in a manual operation or in an automated operation, such as a rolling operation, in which the strips are forced downwardly relative to a planar portion of the sheet, for example by a cogged or selectively actuatable roller, so as to snap beneath the chimes of the adjacent cans. It also is disclosed therein that the longitudinal edge portions may be simultaneously or subsequently folded downwardly along folding lines defined by certain of the slits.
A need has arisen, to which this invention is addressed, for a machine for clipping a succession of generally planar sheets onto a succession of rectangular arrays of cans of the type noted above, possibly at high speeds characteristic of modern filling and packaging operations.